I just bought an old Belgium Browning A5 light 12 and don't know the choke, at one time someone told me you could use a dime to check a choke fast but now I can't remember what size choke a dime is suppose to be anymore. Anyone out there heard of this as a fast way to tell a 12 ga. choke size and if so what choke is it.

One on the best ways to find what choke your barrel is would be to have the bore read. Either a gunsmith or a machine shop with a bore gauge can do this for you at a reasonable price. have them measure at least 6" down from the muzzle and then at the muzzle. So say the bore is .729 nominal for 12 gauge, then the muzzle reads .759 then you would have a full barrel. You can get on briley's website for the nominal constrictions, like .005 skeet, .010 IC, .015 LM, .020 MOD, and so on. Hopes this helps you out.

There are two ways to check the choke of your shotgun, neither of which involves a dime. The first, and most accurate way to determine choke is to pattern the gun at 40 yards. 70% in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards is considerec full choke, 65% is Improved Modified, 60% is modified, 50% is Improved Cylinder and 40% is Cylinder bore. Definitions will vary slightly depending on which books you read, but those numbers are close enough for government work.

The second way is to take your gun to someone who has a bore gauge and have the bore proper and the muzzle diameters measured. Subtracting the muzzle diameter from the bore diameter will give you the constriction, which is an indication of what performance might be expected. But, thenyou you'd have to pattern the gun anyway.

By the way, the dime trick is said to go like this. If you can't fit a dime in the muzzle, you have a full choke. If you can fit a dime in the muzzle, you have something looser than full choke. But, Like I said, it is a very unreliable method.

if you dont have a bore gauge but you have other measuring tools as lets say a micrometer, you can use that, find the bore measurement, find the choke measurement, bore-choke=choke ID (chokes are sized in constriction, not in measurement of the width of the choke)

you barrel if factory should be marked. browning used to use a star system to denote the choke. I can't remember what was what but my sweet 16 is modified with 2 **'s . best bet is to visit a patter board though.

I wonder if the post " Browning choke codes.. " down in the Browning forum would be of any use to you?

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One on the best ways to find what choke your barrel is would be to have the bore read. Either a gunsmith or a machine shop with a bore gauge can do this for you at a reasonable price. have them measure at least 6" down from the muzzle and then at the muzzle. So say the bore is .729 nominal for 12 gauge, then the muzzle reads .759 then you would have a full barrel. You can get on briley's website for the nominal constrictions, like .005 skeet, .010 IC, .015 LM, .020 MOD, and so on. Hopes this helps you out.